Part 24

June 7, 2155

Jena's screen made a soft birdsong just after six in the morning, alerting her to a call. She picked up her screen and silenced it with a tap, and at Raz's one-eyed inquiring look, she kissed his cheek and whispered; "It is only a call. Go back to sleep."

She went out on the balcony and slid the door closed behind her. Tika was already there, working on her screen. Jena exchanged a smile with her, then looked to her own screen.

"Greetings Jena, I am Binjo, most senior of the judges of hunting." the Elder on her screen revealed when he saw he had her attention.

"I am finally called to the test?!" Jena asked excitedly.

"That depends on you." Binjo smiled. "As you know, we do not ask hunters to test in terrain they have never seen, or against prey they have never faced, and an appropriate hunt for you has still not come up, so this is not officially your call to the test. But I know you are past due to be called, and I imagine you are impatient. And, a situation has arisen in Africa that requires some very skillful hunting, and it needs to be dealt with soon.

"There are five young adult male lions, all brothers from the same litter, which is unusual in itself. Since the time they were driven from their pride by their pride-leaders at their adolescence the five have hunted as a pack, and lately they have taken to eating humans. They have killed seven Elephant People, three of whom were children, one tech tourist, two of an invited party of seven hunters of the Wolf People of France, and nine hunters of the Lion People so far. Three of those hunters were killed from the last party that hunted these lions, a group of ten Lion men that included three Master Hunters and a Grande Master, all of whom were armed with knives and lances. The five lions were the only ones to escape the encounter unscathed. These lions are near the height of their ability, and they are exceptional, as exceptional among lions as an Olympic champion is among humans, and are each approaching nine hundred pounds. Very soon, they would take a pride, and then they would stop hunting humans as they shared in their lioness's kills. But the people there fear for their lives, and the Elephant People are incensed by the deaths of their children, so this cannot wait.

"Many are calling for the use of firearms against these lions, or compound bows at the least. I think it would be shameful if it came to that.

"So, I am calling to ask if you would like to join the next hunting party, or if you would like to form one. Almost any number of hunters and almost any choice of weapons will be permitted on this one. I have seen the recordings of your friend Tika with the Tiger known as Agg, and she would be a good one to have with you, as would your mother and the other adults of the Green Band."

"Gods! I cannot believe my bad luck!" Jena cursed. "Are you not aware, great Elder, that Menak and Tira of the Green Band have fought in the Grande Championship of Fighters these last two days, and that there is every indication they will continue doing so for the next six, and that Tika is co-trainer to them with Davdan?"

"I am sorry, Jena, I was not aware of that. I have been able to think of little else but hunting since I became most senior. Still, you could join another hunting party for this if you so choose."

"Damn! I will get little opportunity to show my true ability in a party of strangers!"

"You may be right. If you choose to turn this down, it will not reflect against you, and only I will know that you have done so. What will you do?"

"Can I have a minute? I want to bring Jela-Mother in on this call."

"Certainly."

Jela was soon called, and Jena quickly explained the situation.

"You should tell them we will take it." Jela stated, as soon as she had heard it all.

"How many of us?" her daughter asked.

"Just the two of us."

"Are you sure, Jela-Mother? Against five lions?"

"Do not get modest on me now girl, or get intimidated by this tale of African incompetence!" Jela insisted firmly. "You know we are the best, you and me, and we have trained for worse than this! How do you hunt five lions?"

"One at a time." Jena answered instantly.

"That is right. And with what weapons?"

"If we hunt well, we should be able to do it with our knives. Just in case we get outnumbered and attacked, we will bring our katanas, and in case it really goes to hell and they get in close to us, we should wear claws on our punching knuckles, where they will not interfere with the handles."

"That is right." Jela smiled. "Since this is your test, I will give you leadership of the hunt. Now make it so."

"All right. Binjo, we will take this hunt, armed as I have described."

"Swords, not lances?" Binjo asked.

"Jela-Mother and I have practiced with katanas, and though they have half the reach of a lance, I would rather have one against lions."

"All right. You two may have a chance to do this. I am sure you will get one or two of them at least. The hunt is yours, unless the five go for another human before you can get there, in which case everyone in the zone will probably go after them at once, and there will not be much left of them after that. Here is the address of the closest trading post. Hunting judges are keeping track of the five lions from a distance. Another of them will guide you to the vicinity. Good hunting."

"Thank you, Elder Binjo." Jena said, and ended the call to him, leaving it open to Jela.

"I will bring our gear." Jela told her. "Meet me in the Roti Hut at the International Transit station in Jaipur, and we will travel on together from there. Meanwhile, do as much research on this as you can, and I will do the same. Study the land and lions in general, and try to talk with everyone who has interacted with our five prey or knows anything about them."

"I will. I love you, Jela-Mother."

"And I love you. See you soon. End call."

"You will explain everything to everyone?" Jena asked Tika. "This will probably take a few days."

"I will." Tika said, as she set her screen aside and rose with Jena to give her a hug. "Good hunting. I know you will be masterful. Grande Masterful, in fact!"

"Thank you. Raz will be furious that I did not wake him to tell him, but if I had he would have insisted on coming, and that is out of the question, and I do not have time to argue with him."

"We will comfort him." Tika assured her. "Now go. The greatness of your destiny awaits!"

Jena gave her another quick kiss on the cheek, slipped through the balcony doors, grabbed her pack, and was gone.

Tika gave minimal explanation when the others woke, saying only that Jena had been called to Africa to hunt lion and Jela had gone to assist her, and they may be gone a couple of days or more. She did not explain about the five killer lions since she did not want anyone to worry too much, nor did she want Tira or Menak getting too distracted from their own affairs.

They were relieved that Jena had finally gotten the call, and they were in a lighthearted mood as they reviewed the new rankings that the judges had given the fifty-three victorious fighters the night before. Menak was now-twenty seventh, and Tira was twenty-ninth.

"I am catching up to you, my love!" Tira teased with a grin.

"So you are! I can hardly believe we are ranked among the thirty-two, given how little we have shown!"

"Of the fifty-three remaining, you two are among seventeen who remain completely unmarked, and five of them are those who have had an opponent Decline." Tika pointed out as she checked the stats pages. "So truly, you are two of twelve who are unmarked after fighting two tournament rounds at the Grande Championship. That says something. If I only knew you from what the tournament judges have seen, I would have ranked you similarly."

They ate a leisurely breakfast, then watched a movie on the wall screen in the living room of the suite.

Tika trained with Tira and Menak for an hour after that, while Raz, Slin and Pina went to an amusement arcade under the stadium, wearing their football fan outfits. They gathered in the suite again when Davdan and Naz returned with Assan.

"Lo, Tika!" Assan called in greeting as he led the way into the suite. "We have a surprise this morning! Those prodigies you sent us to work on the space plane project, they got to working on the Molnar fighter in their spare time without telling anyone else! They finished it yesterday and presented it, and they've done a beautiful civil conversion on it, with, get this; four passenger seats, and twenty-four cubic feet of cargo space!

"Here, I'll flash you the footage! We test flew it last night, and it'll probably be certified today! And did I mention it flies great? It does! Hardly different from how it flew before! It gained six feet of frontal area, but it also gained ten percent in power somewhere along the way, and lost eight percent of it's net weight!"

"Too excellent!" Tika laughed, watching the sleek white flyer on her screen. "I thought we would be lucky to get two passenger seats on that airframe! With four seats, it will make us a healthy profit, rather than a marginal one!"

"I see!" Raz nodded, looking over her shoulder. "They split it in half down the vertical centerline, and added a two foot wide section of fuselage there! That was the fighter you got when you bought NightHawks Air, one of the six flyers they had then?"

"Yes, and the only one I had been unable to find practical use for." Tika smiled. "I knew I could add another seat, because there was a two seat trainer version of this flyer, but there is little commercial use for a flyer that can carry only one passenger, and not much more for a flyer that can only carry two. I was unsure if those conversions would be worthwhile. But this is great!"

"They wouldn't even talk to me about the cost!" Assan laughed. "They said they just did it for fun, and that it was the least they could do for you, since you donated land and infrastructure for their school!"

"Find out how much it cost them, in time and credits, or get a professional estimate if you cannot." Tika insisted. "Tell the prodigies that if they will not take the money, I will donate it to the Institute."

"Okay, they'll probably go for that." Assan chuckled.

Tika then spoke surreptitiously with Naz and Davdan about her thinking behind not revealing the level of danger Jena and Jela faced on their hunt, and they agreed with her reasoning. They agreed not to reveal details of the hunt unless someone directly asked for them, and to try to steer conversation away from that until the hunt was finished, or until Tira and Menak were out of the tournament.

They made their way down to their seats for the draw at 11:45, and Tira and Menak presented the tokens of their victories the day before. At noon it was seen that of the fifty-three victors of the previous day's fights and Declinations, only forty-two were still healthy enough to fight today, so there would be twenty-one matches scheduled.

Tira was drawn with the number eight fighter for the second match. The mood among her party intensified as they realized that this would be a very serious challenge indeed. Menak was drawn with the eighteenth ranked fighter, for the nineteenth match. Another serious challenge, if not as much so.

They rose to go as soon as Menak was down the steps with his opponent's ball.

"We have at most thirty minutes to prepare for Tira-Mother's fight." Tika stated as they filed back into their suite. "We will work on that now. After her fight we will have about forty-five minutes to prepare for Menak's fight.

"Tira-Mother, you know Kimeechski is a speed specialist, she has the Quickness gift, and she is tricky. So, it would help if you can be trickier than her. Here is what I am thinking..."

The crowd for Tira's fight was almost evenly split in their declarations, and there were few neutrals. This time Tira smiled and waved as she entered the arena, but she kept her mind firmly on the upcoming fight.

Kimeechski, Tiger Woman of the Mighty Siberian Forest, was five feet five inches tall, of mixed caucasian and oriental ancestry, and was slightly long-bodied and short limbed. Her black hair was only half an inch long, and her violet eyes gleamed incongruously from an otherwise Asian looking face.

When the call came to take their places, Tira and Kimeechski took their stances within striking distance at the center of the octagon. Tira stood with her torso sideways to her opponent, but this time her stance was slightly lower, and she stood with one foot forward and the other back. Kimeechski was poised with her shoulders squarely facing Tira, her clawed hands held shoulder width in front of her, her right foot placed ahead of her left.

As the barrier was raised, Tira moved a few inches right and turned a bit, and Kimeechski frowned at little and moved to match her. Tira moved and turned a little to her left, then again, and a third time, and Kimeechski matched her each time.